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Russian sports minister to meet with national football squad ahead of Euro-2016 qualifier

The Russian national team will gather for its training session in Austria’s Bad Tatzmannsdorf to prepare for the November 15 Euro Cup 2016 qualifying match against its Group G contenders Austria

MOSCOW, November 6. /TASS/. Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Thursday he will travel to Austria to join the training session of the Russian national football team ahead of the next week’s UEFA Euro Cup 2016 qualifier and to meet with team’s Head Coach Fabio Capello.

The Russian national team will gather for its training session in Austria’s Bad Tatzmannsdorf to prepare for the November 15 Euro Cup 2016 qualifying match against its Group G contenders Austria. The match will be held in Vienna.

Mutko said that besides giving the words of support to the team he intended to personally speak to national squad’s Head Coach Capello, but did not give any further details.

Titled Italian coach Capello has not been paid under his contract with the RFU for over four months. According to various media reports, the RFU’s current debt to the Italian coach stands at some 250 million rubles (over $6 million). The RFU, however, does not keep it secret that the union experiences financial difficulties at the moment and its budget deficit stands at 500 million rubles ($11.5 million).

The Russian national squad experienced a string of setbacks over the past decade failing to qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany and 2010 championship in South Africa to the great dismay of the Russian football fans.

Things changed, however, when Italian phenomenon Capello took over the team as the head coach and managed to help the Russian national squad to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The team, however, failed to clear the first stage of the much-anticipated global tournament putting their coach in the center of stern criticism and raising serious concerns in the country about the team’s performance in the next World Cup, which would be hosted by Russia in 2018.

However, Russia did not severe the contract with Capello after the Russian team’s performance at the World Cup in Brazil and the Italian manager also decided to stay with the Russian squad as the head coach until the year of 2018 as stipulated by the contract terms.